Alibaba key finance and business highlights in Q1 2017

Alibaba reported revenue growth of 60%, the highest growth rate since its IPO. They also reported very strong fiscal year revenue growth of 56% with annual non-GAAP free cash flow of approximately US$10 billion.

Alibaba Group’s revenue was US$5,605 million in Q1 2017, an increase of 60% year-over-year.

Core commerce increased 47% year-over-year to US$4,587 million

Cloud computing increased 103% year-over-year to US$314 million

Digital media and entertainment increased 234% year-over-year to US$571 million

Revenue from innovation initiatives and others increased 88% year-over-year to US$133 million

Annual active buyers on Alibaba’s China retail marketplaces reached 454 million, an increase of 11 million from the 12-month period ended in December 2016. Mobile MAUs on its China retail marketplaces reached 507 million in March, an increase of 14 million over December 2016.

Compare with Jingdong: JD annual active customer accounts increased by 40% to 236.5 million in the twelve months ended March 31, 2017, from 169.1 million in the twelve months ended March 31, 2016.

The number of paying customers of Alibaba cloudcomputing business (Aliyun) grew to 874,000 from 765,000 in the previous quarter. Operating loss from cloud computing was 505 million yuan (US$73 million) and adjusted EBITA loss was 169 million yuan (US$24 million).

Alibaba’s net income reached 9,852 million yuan (US$1,431 million) in Q1 2017, income from operations was 9,532 million yuan (US$1,385 million) and adjusted EBITDA was 16,597 million yuan (US$2,411 million).

Mobile GMV transacted on Alibaba China retail marketplaces was 2,981 billion yuan (US$433 billion), or 79% of total GMV, an increase of 49% year-over-year. Mobile revenue from the China commerce retail business was 90,731 million yuan (US$13,182 million), or 80% of Alibaba China commerce retail revenue, an increase of 80% year-over-year.

The number of paying customers of Alibaba cloudcomputing business grew to 874,000 from 513,000 as of March 31, 2016. For the full fiscal year 2017, operating loss from cloud computing was 1,681 million yuan (US$244 million) and adjusted EBITA loss was 476 million yuan (US$69 million).

Alibaba Business Activities in Q1 2017

A new feature called “Digital mirror” on the Taobao App allows consumers to virtually apply different shades of makeup. Taobao aired “Night Warriors”, a new series of webisodes that promotes household products targeting younger shoppers.

As of March 2017, 75% of the consumer brands that ranked in Forbes Top 100 World’s Most Valuable Brands have established digital operations on Tmall.

Alfa Romeo, the luxury auto brand, forged an exclusive strategic partnership with Tmall in the first quarter to market and sell its cars online in China.

In Q1 2017, Alibaba made its AI technology available to merchants doing business on the China retail marketplaces through a service named “Store Concierge” that uses natural-language processing to help merchants to efficiently handle consumer inquiries such as returns and refunds and provide personalized recommendations and promotion information.

Alibaba’s international consumer platform AliExpress and Lazada achieved 83 million annual active buyers combined for the twelve months ended March 2017. AliExpress currently operates sixteen local language sites, including sites in Russian, Spanish and French.

Alibaba joined forces with government entities to launch an e-hub for trade clearance and logistics in Malaysia under the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) initiative to facilitate cross-border trade between China and Southeast Asia and among Southeast Asian countries.

This digital free trade zone will offer simple and straightforward regulations, lower barriers for entry into new markets and provide small businesses with easier access to financing.

In March 2017, 81% of the shipping labels used by these express courier firms for orders generated on Alibaba’s China retail marketplaces used Cainiao Network’s standardized structured data format to ensure faster and more accurate delivery to consumers, up from 60% in the same period last year.

Koubei, Alibaba’s local services joint venture with Ant Financial, generated 75 billion yuan (US$11 billion) in payment volume transacted through Alipay in Q1 2017, compared to 21 billion yuan in the same period last year.